Posted on 03/22/2006 6:33:18 PM PST by aculeus
A woman who disappeared as a teen 10 years ago had been living with a middle school security guard who didn't allow her to leave his home for several years, police said Wednesday.
Tanya Nicole Kach, now 24, was reunited with her family this week. She had been living at the man's home, located about two miles from her father's house in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, police said.
The two met when Thomas Hose, 48, worked as a security guard at a school where Kach was a student. It was not immediately clear how she ended up at the home.
She was discovered Tuesday when she approached a convenience store owner and told him that she wasn't Nikki Evans, the name the owner knew her by. She said she was being kept locked in a bedroom, said the owner, Joseph Sparico.
When she told him her real name, he said, she was upset and shaking.
"I was so scared that nobody would believe me," Kach told WTAE-TV from her father's home Wednesday.
Sparico's son, a retired McKeesport police officer, recognized Kach's name, and Sparico contacted authorities.
Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Kach had been staying at the home Hose shared with his parents since 1996, and was not allowed to leave for the first four years she was there.
When others came over, Kach had to stay in a bedroom, Moffatt said.
"She had no contact with people, other than the people that were in the home," Moffatt said.
Moffatt said Hose would tell her what to eat and what to wear, but there was no indication that Kach had been physically restrained. He said charges were pending but would not elaborate.
James Ecker, Hose's attorney, said police planned to charge his client with sex crimes involving a minor. The attorney said there was no indication that Kach had been abducted or kidnapped.
"As far as I know no one has ever said she was held against her will," Ecker said.
Kach disappeared Feb. 10, 1996, said Police Chief Joseph Pero. She was initially listed as a runaway, but her status was changed to a missing person. He wouldn't say why.
The woman's father, Jerry Kach, was grateful for her return: "I just say thank you. There is a God and he brought my little girl back home."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press.
This SOB needs Lefave's lawyer.
The MSM won tell us about the girl's mental condition. It's not PC ya know.
Wow, what a tale!
If she was locked in a bedroom for 10 years why does this convenience store owner know her by a false name?
"looks like she made it out to the beauty parlor..."
She did not look this way on the day she was found. In the first picture I saw she was much plainer, with dishwater-colored hair and no makeup.
She said that her captor convinced her that her family would not want her back. While I'm skeptical of this story myself, apparently this argument has worked on other kidnap victims. They feel they've been so changed by all that's happened to them that they could no longer return to their old life. Their family would reject them, they wouldn't fit in, etc.
That's a bit harsh. Same sort of scenario as Elizabeth Smart. Brainwashing can be very powerful and effective. But I do agree this is a strange story.
The creep's parents are just as guilty as he is, IMO.
The girl's plight was unfortunate.
It reminds me more of the Steven Stayner story.
I remember a story about a guy that kept a woman locked in a box under his bed for many years. As strange as it may seem there are alot of crazies out there.
BTW - I like your screen name. They are facinating creatures. I met one once.
No. Though I wished I had seen him closer w/o the possibility of limbs torn from my body.
I was driving backroads near the Glacier National Park.
I came around a corner and he was about 200 yards off sitting in the road. I assumed he would run off into the brush, so I kept driving. I didn't drive to much farther before he stood up and charged me. He cleared half the distance in seconds. I was able to turn around and drive off before he cleared the remaining distance.
It was exciting.
Stockholm syndrome. Maybe the creep told her that her family didn't want her, was dead, or some other fallacy.
There must not be enough current news for you to have dug up a story posted in March.
I didn't dig up any story. I'm just answering a post.
Didn't even check the dates...but the thread was out in the open. Odd that it even showed up, as I didn't do a search or anything.
Did I wake you? :)
What are you talking about, and no, you didn't wake me.
I linked to THIS thread from the one about the girl in Europe who was found in a basement...then I answered your post without looking at the dates.
"Out in the Open"=Thought THIS thread a recent one.
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